Two movies for the price of one, both highly enjoyable in their own right.

Rating: 8/10 (16 August 2005)

"The Island" previews pretty much gave away the entire plot of the first half of the film, which is really a separate film entirely from the middle portion. Michael Bay proves once again that any exercise in restraint he makes is then in turn made up for by throwing in extra explosions, chases, crashes, and unlikely rescues so that the 'thinking' portion of his film is justly compensated for by the 'oooh, explody' segment.
That said, "The Island" manages, on the strength of its actors, to convey a creepy look into two futuristic tomorrows, each equally familiar to any fan of the sci-fi genre. In one, the agnates, whose personalities run the gamut from the interesting and curious Lincoln Six- Echo (McGregor) to the dull and clueless but intuitive Jordan Two-Delta (Johannsen), are the survivors of an apocalyptic event, a staple of futuristic science fiction. In the other reality, less removed from the present day in all but a few locomotive improvements, people continue to support the tenets of capitalism and pop culture rules.
The first part of the film, given over to the first reality and the revelation of the second, succeeds on the anguish conveyed by the dubious McGregor and the devious Bean (as Dr. Merrick). The second, with its aforementioned gratuitous use of flash-bang explosions, manages to lighten to mood and calls for a greater suspension of disbelief in the laws of physics than the first half required with regards to the current status of bio-engineering. Aside from that, no matter how mindless or repetitive the chase, Bay makes a good show of it, and the characters get a chance to prove themselves capable of surviving and a bit more intelligent than they were originally credited as being (mostly, this is applicable to Ms. Johannsen's character who, although given a biological reason for being less than savvy about her circumstances, comes off mainly as a vacuous blonde through much of the film's first act).
Although each segment is enjoyable in its own right, it's a shame that the eerie beginning was not allowed to hold sway over the rest of the film. Interrupting shock and horror with adrenaline and thrills seems a cheat for what was otherwise finely achieved suspense. One hopes in the future that, instead of glorying in his outsider's status, Michael Bay will attempt to keep his destructive instincts under control and allow a story to tell itself without doing so between punctuated blasts of dynamite.